


To The Sky

by DragonBreathing



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Eventual Romance, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Romance, Trans Male Reader, trans male, trans reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26098030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonBreathing/pseuds/DragonBreathing
Summary: Adults need friends, right? Parents need friends, especially. You're no parent, just a mentor to autistic kids like you. But you met a parent at the park that seems alright to you. And parents need friends, right? Maybe more than friends, though...Hotch x Trans!Male!Autistic!Reader
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Reader, Aaron Hotchner/You
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don't mind me projecting and needing some fluffy trans male autistic reader shit. theres like nothing in this fandom for aaron hotchner being bi and loving a trans male reader, and god forbid reader is autistic. we get it yall dont really care about anyone besides nt cishet women. anyways sorry im bitter please enjoy my story

It was beautiful out today, you thought to yourself. The cool autumn breeze was crisp and brought a promise of winter. The leaves were bright and colorful. Children were laughing and playing in the park. The sun was high in the sky. Everything about today seemed perfect. 

You sat on a bench, watching Joselyne swing across the monkey bars. You’d never say it out loud, but of all the kids you worked with in the program, Joselyne was probably your favorite. She was always so sweet and bright and had so much passion and excitement for life. She made you feel alive just by being around her. Even though she struggled with her autism, she was wonderful and amazing, and you felt like you were blessed just to know her.

She dropped off the end of the monkey bars and turned to you with a huge grin, her dark brown eyes sparkling. She waved at you excitedly. You smiled and waved back. You watched her then run off, her many dark braids bouncing on her head, climbing up on the playground equipment to use one of the few slides. 

You sighed, checking your watch. The day was slowly passing by, but that was okay by you. This afternoon, you had nowhere to be. You made sure this afternoon was clear to spend time with one of the kids from the Autism Mentorship program you volunteered at. You were so excited when it happened to be Joselyne. 

Looking up, you watched Joselyne’s dark face pop out of the darkness of the tube slide, a big smile stretching from cheek to cheek. She looked at you for reassurance again, and you gave her two thumbs up and a grin to match.

Before she could get up, though, a small white blonde boy slid into her back, kicking her hard. 

You inhaled sharply, knowing this might not be good. One of Joselyne’s issues on the spectrum was anger management issues, causing her trouble with socializing with other kids her age. She was getting better, but you had a feeling this would cause an issue with the young girl. Eight was a hard age to be already, and to be on the spectrum made it worse. You jumped up, hurrying over to her, just as she started to turn and yell.

“What did you do that for?!” she screamed. “You kicked me! You kicked me!” 

The young boy looked shocked, unsure what to even say.

“Joselyne!” you said, a slight warning edge to your voice, but still gentle.

Before you could say anything else, the young boy was quickly swooped up into someone else’s arms. “I’m so sorry,” the man apologized.

“He kicked me!” Joselyne yelled.

“Joselyne,” you said again, squatting down to her level. “Remember, yelling isn’t a good way to communicate. I know you’re upset, but let’s take a deep breath, okay?”

Joselyne huffed, her cheeks puffed up in indigence. But she took a deep breath, before looking up at the tall man and the blonde boy with a scowl. “You kicked me!” she insisted, in an accusatory tone, but not yelling.

“Jack, say you’re sorry, please,” the man said, his tone even.

“Sorry,” the little boy, Jack, said, his voice quiet. He buried his head in his, presumably, father’s chest, gripping onto the man’s grey sweater with his small hand.

“Now, what do you want to do, Joselyne?” you asked, looking at the small girl.

Joselyne looked thoughtful for a moment, studying the boy with squinted eyes. After a moment, she sighed, then said, “It’s okay, I forgive you.”

You smiled. “That was really sweet and big of you Joselyne! I’m so proud of you. Can I hug you?”

Joselyne turned to you with a grin and held her arms out. 

“Oh, come here!” you scooped her up into your arms, hugging her tight, taking the opportunity to pull her off the end of the slide before another accident happened. “Are you okay? Does your back hurt?”

“I’m okay,” she replied, voice muffled in the shoulder of your sweater. “I wanna go play again.” 

“Okay, honey, you go play.” You set her down, and watched as she ran off to another end of the playground, hopping on one of the bouncy rides. 

“That was impressive parenting,” you hear the deep, steady voice from earlier, and you turn your head. It’s Jack’s father, looking at you. Finally, you can see he’s tall, dark, and handsome, with deep brown eyes and dark, cropped hair, just barely falling over his forehead. You see he’s set Jack down, but following his eyes, you can see Jack isn’t far away, just at the sandbox a few feet away, in clear eyesight of his dad. 

“Thanks,” you said, somewhat flatly. You weren’t sure how to take the compliment, but felt awkward explaining you weren’t a parent. Besides, you didn’t want to start any trouble. 

“You must be an amazing mother,” he continued, eyes still on Jack.

Now it was your turn to get upset, eyebrows pinching together, a dark cloud coming over you. At your gloomy silence, the man’s eyes turned to you, and his eyebrows furrowed, confused, realizing he’d said something wrong.

“I’m not Joselyne’s mother,” you said calmly, despite your crossing arms over your chest.

“Oh, I’m… sorry,” he apologized, still confused.

“And I’m not a woman,” you corrected him, voice cold.

It took a second, but realization and clarity filled his eyes. For the first time, he actually looked over you. Mens pants. Mens sweater, presumably in your favorite color. Mens shoes. Clothes baggy enough to hide your form. There was a reason for that. 

“I apologize.” He looked ashamed. It made you feel a bit guilty, knowing not everyone realized. But still, you felt at this point in your life, some people should recognize you’re not a girl. 

You sighed, looking over at Joselyne, still bouncing back at forth, laughing at something another child said. “It’s fine,” you mumbled.

“Clearly not,” the man replied. He was quiet for a minute, as were you. 

Then he stepped over towards you, away from the playground equipment, holding out his hand. “I’m Aaron.”

You looked up at him, then at his hand, somewhat suspicious. But you shook his hand, telling him your name. 

He repeated your name back to you. “I apologize for my incorrect assumption. I should have realized you were a man before, but I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Sometimes people don’t see it,” you said, waving it away with your hand.

“Well I should have,” he said, glancing over to Jack. “I’m a profiler.”

You raised an eyebrow. “What, like a detective?”

“Well, yes,” Aaron said. “I’m an agent for the FBI.”

“Huh,” you replied, not really knowing what to say to that. 

You two were quiet for a moment, watching your respective children.

Joselyne was so happy and joyful. You watched as she eventually got bored of her bouncing dragon, but something else caught her eye. She joined the other kids of her age on the merry-go-round, grabbing a bar and running around before jumping on. The kids squealed and laughed happily, making you smile.

Aaron broke you out of your thoughts. “So if she’s not your child, who is she?”

You glanced over at him. “I’m in a mentorship program,” you replied. “If you’re wondering, I have full permission to have her, and people know where we are.”

“I didn’t assume you took her,” he assured you. “If you did take her, you would have reacted to me telling you I’m a federal agent.”

You thought about it for a minute, then shrugged. “I guess…”

“What program?”

“The Autism Mentorship program.”

“So you’re autistic?”

“Yes. Though I’m not comfortable with strangers just knowing and assuming that.”

“I don’t think any less of you. Really.” Aaron checked his watch, before glancing back at you. “I work with a savant. Really gifted kid. He’s a total genius. Amazing at what he does, amazing what he knows.”

You sighed. “Everyone knows an autistic person,” you mumbled.

Aaron was quiet for a moment, before quietly saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be inappropriate.” 

Maybe you were just being cold and grouchy. I mean, getting misgendered certainly made you a certain way. You had to stop and remind yourself that this guy had stopped and apologized. He was being pretty kind to you, too. He wasn’t being rude or transphobic. He was going out of his way to even chat you up despite everything. 

You rolled your eyes to yourself, sighing. You had to make an effort to be a bit nicer! Open up a little! It’s not like you had a lot of friends. It would be good to associate with more adults besides your family and coworkers, wouldn’t it? 

You turned to him and gave him a smile, a little genuine, a little forced. “I’m sorry, I’m being difficult,” you apologized.

Aaron seemed surprised. “You’re fine,” he assured you.

“Jack seems like a sweet kid,” you complimented. “You seem like a good dad.”

“He’s a great kid,” he said. “Just as sweet as his mom was.”

Oof, you could sense some baggage there. You weren’t sure you were going to want to deal with a stranger talking to you about his, presumably, deceased wife. So you moved on. “Well, I’m sure he also gets it from you being a great parent.”

The corner of Aaron’s lips turned up just the tiniest bit. “Thank you.” You assumed that’s the closest he ever got to smiling. 

You checked your watch again. It was getting close to dinner time, and you knew Joselyne’s parents would want her home on time. “I should be going soon,” you said. 

“Getting late?” Aaron asked, checking his own watch.

“Maybe not for you, but it is for Joselyne and me,” you said. “Have a good evening!” You began to take a step towards the merry-go-round, but Aaron interrupted you.

“Maybe I could see you again?”

Well, that certainly caught you off guard! This guy wanted to see you again? Why? You were kinda rude to him at first, and he seemed… not gay. 

Hey, don't get ahead of yourself, maybe he just wants to talk to another adult too. Parents have a hard time socializing too, right? Yeah, that makes sense. 

“Did you want to swap phone numbers?” You asked.

Aaron nodded. “That seems like a good idea.” He pulled out his phone.

“Okay,” you said, pulling out your phone and walking over to him.

You both quickly switched numbers, before you finally said farewell.

Taking Joselyne home, you couldn’t help but be confused about what all had just happened. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You ran into him, again. How did you run into him twice? Hell, you'd managed to forget his existance. Now what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My wife (my best friend, I'm not married and im single ;))) ) made me write this chapter. She doesn't really care about this show or fandom but she thinks I should write more representation. So might as well. Thank Natalie for me finally getting off my ass and writing this.

It was easy to forget that day at the park. It was so mundane, despite the strange conversation and interest that man, Aaron, had shown you. It was just another day at the park.

Despite everything, life moves on.

You got busy with work, with the mentorship program, with your own friends, and with the upcoming Halloween Trunk-r-Treat the mentorship program put on every year with help from one of the local schools. 

You were so excited, today was finally the day. Halloween landed on a Thursday this year, so it was the Saturday before. You were setting up the back of your van with decorations in the parking lot of the school, making sure that you had plenty of candy to spare, and adding some last minute details to your costume. You were so thrilled to see the kids this year, especially the ones from the program. Their excited little faces, the joyful grins as they got their candy, it all filled you with happiness. 

Halloween was such a great holiday. What a wonderful time of year! Sure, there weren’t gifts like Christmas, or big family gatherings like Thanksgiving and Easter, but there wasn’t anything bad about candy and costumes and kids having fun. The adult parties weren’t always bad, either. 

Finally, the evening got started at five, as kids started to trickle down the quiet parking lot, going from car to car, holding their bags and buckets out for candy. You saw all sorts of little monsters and witches, cats and dogs, fairies and unicorns, pirates and cops. 

But you certainly didn’t expect to see them.

You didn’t recognize the blonde boy at first, but you definitely recognized his father. It took a minute for your mind to remember his name. 

“Aaron!” You remembered out loud, surprise heavy in your tone.

He looked surprised to see you, and he was probably more surprised to see you in costume. “Hey!”

“And, um, Jack!” you recalled, looking down at the blonde in a little suit with a fake FBI badge, who gave you a shy smile in return. “How are you, buddy?”

“I’m good,” he said shyly, before holding out his pillowcase, already a fourth of the way full. “Trick or treat!” 

You couldn’t help but smile, before holding your candy bowl out for him. “You pick what you want, okay?”

He nodded, looking quite serious, before looking intently in the bowl for a second or two. After a moment of deep thinking, he pulled out a Three Musketeers, and put it in his bag. 

“Good choice, buddy,” Aaron said, ruffling the blonde’s hair. “You ready for the next one?”

“Yeah!” Jack exclaimed softly, before walking off to the next car.

Aaron looked up at you, giving you a stone-cold look that you couldn’t really decipher, before following his son to the next car.

You watched them go, curious as to how you managed to run into them again. It’s not like it was a small community. But you shook it out of your mind, and turned to the next child saying, “Trick or Treat!” and when on with your night.

Until, of course, you were cleaning up for the night. You’d managed to give out all your candy, glad you bought those extra bags. But right as you were closing the trunk of your car, you heard the  _ ding  _ of your phone going off with a text. After making sure the trunk was secure, you checked your messages. 

[Aaron Hotchner] I didn’t expect to see you tonight. What were you doing at the Trunk-r-Treat?

You thought about answering for a minute, taking the time to get into your car, turn it on, and buckle in. After running it over in a mind, you took a second to reply.

[Y/N] I volunteered to hand out candy to the kids. Is that suspicious?   
  
It took but a moment for him to reply.

[Aaron Hotchner] You don’t have kids, yet you’re heavily involved in the community, specifically with kids. Why?   
  


You let out an exasperated huff, angrily typing back.

[Y/N] I like kids. I’m not some sort of predator, for God’s sake. Even if I wanted my own kids, I haven’t settled down with anyone yet, so I have yet to build a family.

With that, you got a moment of peace as you drove home. The drive home was peaceful. Trees blew in a gentle wind. Streetlights cast orange glows on the street and houses. When you finally made it to your apartment, locking the door, you heard another  _ ding _ . You checked your phone.

[Aaron Hotchner] I apologize, I didn’t mean to offend you.

You could only guess he was being suspicious because he was worried about his own kid. Adorable kid. So you decided to let it go. You hoped you wouldn’t be constantly letting go his little irritating things.

[Y/N] Thanks for apologizing. 

[Aaron Hotchner] No problem. I’m surprised you haven’t settled down with someone.

[Y/N] Never met the right person. I’m more concerned with my career right now.

[Aaron Hotchner] Just don’t get consumed by it.

[Aaron Hotchner] I’d like to get to know you more sometime. Maybe over dinner?

You raised an eyebrow. Was this dude seriously asking you out to dinner?

I mean, he was handsome. Caring, it seemed, at least about his kid, and suspicious men doing right in the community. So you guessed it wouldn’t be a bad thing to do.

[Y/N] Sure.

You two took a minute to set up a date and time, and then you sat at your desk.

This whole thing felt a little odd and confusing to you. It certainly wasn’t how you usually meet people to take you out to dinner. But at least you’d gotten over the whole “I’m trans” conversation, and it wasn’t a concern. He already knew. Hell, maybe it wasn’t even romantic. Maybe it was just two people going out to dinner to become friends. You were the one putting a romantic context on it.

You shook your head, putting your head in your hand, elbow resting on the wood of the desk. This was a lot to think about.

You decided to write a letter about it.


End file.
